Meeting Zeon

::Hanzo Stood as Chase spoke:: Miss Serah, I believe you, and Mr Chase have misunderstood. No has said anything what so ever about your governments defensive stance. Both Mr Fellini and myself agreed that sending in civilian colony ships as a vanguard for an invasion was idiotic. No one mentioned not even once that anyone was idiotic. We were illustrating that an invading force, or any type of military operation would be foolish to send civilian's and non military ships that are damaged in first. I am sure Mr Chase can agree that civilians do not belong on front lines. As for getting down to business what exactly did you think this meeting is meant to do? We are here to meet, greet, and come to understand our new neighbors and friends. Also Mr Chase, I will remind you, that while you are a guest here in Cascadian space, I encourage you to keep a proper a tone when addressing the table. If you are unable to keep yourself composed I will have you escorted to your ship and back to Neutral Crest space, and Miss Serah will take over as Novalyse's representative. I will also say to Mr Fellini to please choose your words more carefully, and less..... pointed. There are many different cultures represented at this table. We have the ADR, who are oriented almost entirely on learning and discovery, OMNE who are at the end of the day a large colonial corporation out for profit, no offense meant by that, Deysha who are a melting pot of many ideals, Novalyse who are a vastly military structure and disciplined, and we Cascadian's who as I believe many of your people knicknamed us, the goodie two shoe's of the sector. What I mean to illustrate is that simply expecting someone, or something, such as a large colony that has been mostly cut off from any friendly communication to simply jump through any hoop placed before them, is NOT the way to peaceful friendly dialogues. We need to listen and understand the new so that we need not fear it. Now if anyone, anyone at all this is not directed at anyone specific. has questions or concerns that have not been explained or you wish more explained, then let us hear them, let Mr Fellini have the chance to answer your concern directly.

Glancing around at the various members of the meeting, Deyn cleared his throat loudly and put his cigar out as soon as Hanzo was done speaking. He had prepared to interject just now yet he did so in a keen gentlemanly fashion. Detsil squirmed uncomfortably at his side amidst the brewing conflict.

"If I may, ah, make an observation?" Deyn began tentatively in his best diplomatic voice, and then paused for a moment to give anyone who wanted to interrupt him a graceful and valid chance to do so before he continued.

Chase smiled a bit, unusual still that he have any expression beyond a steadfast, determined, yet slightly gentle look, slightly amused by the challenge posed by the Cascadian.  He clicked his cane on the ground at his side and began to turn for the door when Deyn spoke.  

"Go ahead, better you than I right now." he spoke with a half laugh, still riddled with irritation.  He leaned heavily on his cane as he physically struggled to stand upright for a moment.  He had been hiding it quite well, but the man was still very much injured and was clearly forcing himself even to be standing, let alone wandering the halls of a foreign ship.  

Jericho took a step forward, thinking that the Overseer was about to fall, but stopped when he managed to steady himself.  Jericho knew two sides of the man standing before the crowd, they only knew the patient man.  Seeing him like this flared even Jericho's tempered fury as his eyes shifted with slight, barely noticeable flare of anger.  Serah stood silent for a few moments, likely unwilling to speak after Chase authorized Deyn to go before himself.  Even if she was second born, Chase was a member of the triumvirate, his words are law in Novalyse.

Deyn nodded his head towards Chase with a silent understanding, and then looked back to address the others calmly. He saw that the potential for conflict was gurgling up rapidly, and he was thorough and succinct in his attempt to address it.

"Just as Councilman Hanzo said, we are a diverse sector. We did not assemble a delegation of the world's leaders to drop everything at hand and come here to critique each others' foreign policy. The fact is that we are now in the situation where we are being asked as representatives of our colonies and of the sector as a whole to accept Zeon as an ally and, for all intents and purposes, a refugee group. This is no small question. We need to focus on this, and not on what has already been done. You are asking for peace and shelter, and we have come to hear your requests and consider the future impacts that they might have on all of us. I would ask that we put aside everything else that isn't of an urgent matter for right now and focus on the question that is truly at hand: what should we, as the standing representatives of the Crest Sector, bring back to our people to best decide how to approach the situation at hand?"

Thank you Mr Deyn. Now what questions are there that need to be answered? :: noticing Chases difficulty standing he looks to the Charr:: Do we have seats available? I'm not as spry as I once was?

"Which was what I was intending to convey.  It is easy to see how many people can assume that there is a threat underlying this ordeal, especially under dire circumstances.  If Zeon is to be permitted into the Sector, it must be by some vote of the colonial figures.  One colony cannot decide for the others whether or not will benefit the sector as a whole." she said before looking to Hanzo.  "The removal of one of those figures will not help to bring light the benefits of acceptance."

Chase turned back toward the group, some distance away from him he watched as Serah spoke.  Her voice was even toned, polite, but direct when it needed to be, a quality he undoubtedly taught to her over the course of years in his counsel. He took a deep breath, calming the storm of pain and anger that clouded his judgement.

"One of the questions that needs to be answered is not why you've come here, but why should we allow you to stay?  A new colony can be taxing on the economy and resources, so what counter balances the pressure you will cause to all of our societies?"  Chase spoke again, returning to the patient tone most had admired him for.

"General Chase is absolutely right. We have to look at this from all practical - as well as ethical - angles. But, like Councilman Hanzo said...let's all sit down and work this out, and then those of us who have outside matters to attend to can be on their way, and I'm sure the rest of us who are able to stay will appreciate your invitation to get more acquainted, Charr Fellini. Now, I hope everything is all straightened out, and we can continue?"

Deyn nodded to each leader that he mentioned in turn. Hopefully, he thought, the situation had been diffused, and they could bicker about something that really mattered instead. Deyn realized that he had been gesturing with his finished stump of a cigar the entire time, and he absently flicked some ash off of it as he finished his last comments.

Upon Hanzo mentioning the chairs, Fellini finally noticed Chase's pain and quickly pressed a button on the table and asked "Stics, can you get maintenance to bring up some chairs for our guests? As soon as possible please." He said slightly urgently, even though he was slightly annoyed by the Novalysians, he understood where they were coming from, and was concerned for the injured man who should have been resting.

A few moment later two Zeonites came in with a rolling stack of chairs and set them up around the table for the delegates.

Fellini smiled and motioned for everyone to sit down, but he stood for a few moments longer and said "I apologize for any offense, it was not my intent to offend you." he said very sincerely "My skills in diplomacy are not very refined, my people deal with pirates more often than other colonies." He sighed with a small smile before sitting down, this was stressing him out XD

He appreciated the return of the patient side of Chase, while he liked dealing with Serah quite a bit more, she didn't seem nearly as…combative as an injured Chase.

Fellini nodded Deyn and continued "Zeon has existed as a rather self sufficient entity for some time. Our facilities for producing food, purifying water, and recycling air are some of the best we've seen while passing other stations and colonies, so ideally we wouldn't have to burden any colony by asking for such basic resources and food and water…" He paused and sighed "But after the last few attacks from pirates some of those facilities were badly damaged, so we would need to ask for the materials to repair them, as we have also gotten rather low in our reserves of materials. So for the mean time we would sadly need help with that.." It pained him to say, he wasn't used to asking colonies for help with food. As he spoke full color three dimensional images were produced from the table, showing how the food production areas should look, and how they do now.There was significant damage to a number of them, thought the Zeonite engineers managed to get parts of the damage facilities working, they just didn't have the materials to fully repair them. These were live feeds from surveillance around the fleet.

He took a moment to think of ways to explain how Zeon could also give something to the economic system, instead of just weighing on it. "As I mentioned earlier, Zeon has a number of things to sell and trade, hopefully balancing our drain on the economy. We would be willing to trade basic versions of the A.I, our virtual reality technology, and we would be willing to trade retired fighter and transport designs. They aren't obsolete by any standard, we just improved the design of most of our ships recently and don't mind selling the old designs. We would also be willing to send engineers to help other colonies recreate our food and water systems. For use in expeditionary ships " He nodded to Hanzo "Or on terrestrial colonies, or stations. Our systems are more efficient then most, and even on terrestrial colonies space is always an issue as populations grow, our systems are made to utilize space as efficiently as possible. And we were planning on making our star maps public on this sector's data net or just to each colony's leaders, whichever was approved by this gathering. They include our path from the original Zeon and all the stations and colonies we have met slog the way."

I would also like to remind everyone, that there are a fair number of possible planets within the Azure system. They are not among the most desirable of real estate in the Crest cluster but with Zeon's know how with deep space agriculture, I am confident it would be workable with minor teraforming assistance. There are established trade routes within Azure system and the CSCC has approved the construction of a large trade port in orbit over Cascadia after the opening of the new beach resorts planet side this should alleviate any strain on trade route with a new colony. And the Star Maps may help shed more light on the state of other colonies and their positions as well as updating our own charts of our position in relation to our original courses here,seeing as space is expanding, within the time our people have been here our long range charts are most definitely dated and inaccurate

"Your exports seem well enough to suffice but judging from the display outside the maneuverability is quite different from anything that has been used in the past. Are you willing to work with the buyers in training to use these new machines, or will that service come with a price tag as well? Further, approximately how many retired fighters are you talking about? Is it likely that your agricultural mechanisms will be fully functioning in the time period before all of them are sold?" Serah elaborated more questions for the Charr to answer. "Chairman, I'd like to alter your statement in that an entire department within the labs of Novalyse is devoted to ensuring up-to-date system maps throughout the Sector. If there is need for any updates for your own I could issue a request and have them forwarded upon our return to the colony."

[Deysha-II]

Deyn leaned back in his chair and watched with some amusement. Things seemed to be headed mostly in the right direction now. Detsil fidgeted nervously beside his boss, unwilling to get entangled in anything.

[ADR]

Zeth Johnson tented his fingers in thought as he listened to Fellini. "I wouldn't be opposed to considering trade rights and economic agreements with Zeon," he began, "and I think it would be an excellent start towards looking more in-depth at the possibility of alliances or even the inclusion into the sector. And personally, if you say that food is your greatest need at this point, I don't see why we couldn't work out some arrangements to at least make sure your people aren't hungry while we go through negotiations, whatever the result."

::councilman hanzo smiled at Mrs Lawson:: You misunderstand, we all have up to date maps and charts for the crest sector and closely surounding systems, but What is the furthest any of our longer range ships or satellites have gone? Zeon's longer range maps and charts would be significantly more up to date then ours. If we were to utilize theirs and overlay them to ours we could theoreticly update a large ammount if not all of our longer range charts based on theirs. Yes its not a concern Crest is a safe, and very prosperous system I might go so far as to say that the original colony plan from Earth never in its wildest dreams would have believed a sector like this with as many habitable or terraformable worlds could exist. But it may do us all a service to know more about whats out there just beyond our sight.

"With all respect due, our department took initiative after the end of the war. One of its purposes is to acquire information and chart up to date maps of the surrounding systems, not just including our own. In doing so we hope to avoid any further conflict with external colonial presences as well as pirates. Star maps from our portion of the sector and our surroundings are very well kept to date." Serah politely corrected. "Not to dispute your point, Zeon may have Star Maps from adjacent quadrants of our own that may prove useful."

I was unaware Novalyse had any long range exploration or mapping expeditions. Perhaps we should also set up a smaller meeting to compare findings and ship design. CSCC as I had stated has plans to field a full expeditionary fleet within the next few years, starting with a few ships before the year is out, and We're trying to update our entire starchart including our entire course from earth to here, which is why we are particularly interested in any updated maps, we'd be able to extrapolate trajectory changes and universe expansion by overlaying new maps over old maps and judging positional changes. But I digress that is a discussion for another time.

Fellini nodded as he listened to the questions from Serah before responding "We would be very willing to send experts to go help train people in the usage of our fighters, no extra cost except food and lodging for them while they are away. I'm sure for them the chance to see new worlds would be payment enough" he chuckled before bringing up a hologram of a hangar full of fighters "We had to scrap most of the old generation to kick start the new one, but we still have quite a few, if you were interested I could have A.l.i bring up yhe exact number of fighters there are. And with the designs and the people we would send to train people in their operation, making new ones shouldn't be difficult for any of you." Then he sighed "It's hard to say when they will be fully operational, they are advanced but delicate systems, we've haven't done a full repair like this since before I was made a Charr."

"We aren't sure how far out you've mapped with you charts, but if we have anything you don't have or if our information fills any gaps, we'd be happy to share anyway."

(ADR)

Johnson nodded as he listened, seeing some potential at the bottom of all of this. "We'll try it, on a probationary period at least, just to see how everything works out."

(Deysha-II)

Deyn offered no response, apparently disinterested in any exchange with the fighters on behalf of Deysha.

::councilman hanzo seemed pleased:: If no one has other questions I'm quite anxious to see how the Zeonites live.

(ADR)

With a nod, Johnson consented his agreement to move on with the meeting.

(Deysha-II)

"Oh, I have quite a few questions." Deyn absent-mindedly traced his beard. "But I'll wait."

Serah looked to Chase who sat in an uncomfortable angle in his chair, clearly trying to avoid putting too much pressure on his wounds. He gave a brief nod to her and motioned Jericho to follow as he took hold of the handle of his cane and slowly rose up to his feet.

"I agree with Deyn," Chase said as he stood. "There are many things the remain left unaddressed that I expect we will have time for after your tour."

Serah stood and followed the others, moments later Jericho was close at her heels.

"General..." he activated his Neuro Censor and silently reached out to the Overseer.

"Keep close eyes on her, if anything is to become of this get her back to the borders." Chase responded. "I don't trust them."

Fellini stood and smiled "You can ask me any questions you have at any point and I will answer them as fully as I can. Now we have two different areas the tour can start in, we can get to them rather quickly from this room. We can get to the hangar being used to store those old fighters you were shown, if any of you want a closer look at them, or we can go through the nearest hydroponics facility, while it was damaged it's not as bad off as the others."

Simmons had remained quiet, listening to everyone. He was sure this would be a rather advantageous venture from O.M.N.E, if he managed to get the trust of Charr Fellini he could cement a new business partner right here and now. "I'd like to see both personally, but we can start with whichever the rest of the rest of the representatives want to see."

Fellini nodded "Of course we will be able to see both by the end of the tour." He noticed Chase was uncomfortable and hesitated before asking, with an obvious trepidation in his voice along with sincere concern "Mr.Chase, would you like any help? I understand you are injured, and I don't want any of my guests to be in pain."

The fighters can wait, This meeting isn't about, or at the very least shouldn't be about weapons and what new machines you can offer us. I'd like to see People, how you all live, what you need. Hydroponics sounds like a good place to start :: Councilman Hanzo said as he stood::

"As you are unaware of our culture I will explain. Novalysians do not accept help, as in at least part of our culture being asked implies weakness. So in the future please do not offer it," Chase said calmly as he leaned on his cane. "You can simply call me Chase, I have no need for any formalities."

Serah was about to say something, likely to try to smooth over the rough concept Chase had given the Zeonite when Jericho placed his hand on her shoulder. She turned and looked at him, only receiving a single shake of his head in response.

Fellini nodded, he didn't understand that sentiment and found it rather foolish but he knew what saying so would do, so he hid rather well so he didn't get into more trouble with these Novalysians. "Oh, I'm sorry Chase, I will refrain from doing so in the future as you ask, I didn't know it would be offensive." After that bit of awkwardness and after only the cascadians having an opinion about where they go, he decided to start the tour through the section of hydroponics bays on this part of the ship.

They walked through a small hallway before getting out onto a cat walk overlooking a large bank of hydroponics areas, and many of them were just as damaged as the ones he had shown them, though a few looked to be in a little bit of better shape. Repairs seemed to be...in the process of trying to work. They had repaired a few basic systems but obviously not nearly enough to get any of these in full working order.

There were scores of people running around through the mess of belts, pipes, farms, and harvesting devices as if it wasn't clustered or close in the slightest, not stopping a beat. A few people taking time to look up at shout up a greeting to Charr Fellini. The Charr turned to them and walked backwards while talking "This is the first hydroponics bay on this ship, it was built when we first left our world and has been upgraded and reorganized countless times since then. Some of the best engineers on Zeon are at work in this sector right now." He smiled, he was obviously not trying to impress anyone, more just talking about something that interested him.

"Now as we walk through you can take a look at anything and ask any questions you may want. Of course you may also ask any questions about anything really, that's why you're here, please don't think you can't ask questions about greater concerns just because we aren't in the council room."

Hanzo follows remaining quiet and taking everything in greeting any worker that happened to be close enough

As they walked over the cat walk that showed Zeon's rather advanced farming and hydroponics systems, they would see there was in fact rather severe damage. Bits and pieces were functioning, having been made to work at least so the ships didn't starve, but obviously they were not working at their highest efficency, and engineers and other works were running around making sure everything was functioning as well as they could, trying to scrape together what spare parts they had left to try and bring more systems up and running.

A few conversations could be heard from below, saying that the rationing that had just recently gone into affect would keep the ships self sufficient from some time, but unless they got materials to repair the farming systems soon, they simply wouldn't have enough to feed everyone anymore. It was between two people in what seemed to be managerial positions, as engineers and other works did come up to them to ask questions or get assigned to different areas. It all looked very urgent, so urgent that none of them even bothered to look up to see the Charr and the foreign dignitaries walking above them.

They went through a number of bays like that one, and they varied greatly in the things they grew and produced, a couple seemed to be very specifically made for live stock, but that one was empty and devoid of workers or anything else for that matter. Fellini explained the repairs in this area were rather easy, it was a hull breach from a rather significantly advanced round from a Pirate Flagship. All the livestock was killed, but holes are easy to patch, it's the more complicated repairs that come with circuity damage and the like that make the repairs so long and on going.

Eventually they got to an area that seemed like living quarters, each family had a door that led into an apartment styled house, it didn't look over crowded by any means but there wasn't much extra space, the houses must be very bare bones and only the essentials. Fellini explained this was also the block all the Charr's call home. Every housing block is modeled after this one, people on these ships go to the recreation areas for entertainment, and the large cafeteria's for meals. The home is only used in Zeonite culture for private family matters and sleep. Though they could tell this area was nearly fully repaired, there were obvious signs of work ongoing, nothing as severe as the farming sections, but definitely not small enough to be left alone.

Fellini took some time here, pointing out the various blocks that were used for housing and how they differed from the large 'ground floor' area used for schooling. Zeonite schooling was strict and in many ways unforgiving, but it was designed to challenge children to push themselves to be the best they can be, and every indicator was saying it worked. He didn't go deep into details obviously but they could see classes were in session, even if repairs were going on.

There was a group of repairmen who had just finished on a overhead vent system who were just getting back onto the walkway that the dignitaries found themselves on. They seemed to be enjoying their work, though they also seemed rather tired and they looked and...smelled like that had been working very hard for the day.

As soon as they saw the dignitaries and their Charr they immediately all went into attention and greeted the Charr who quickly told them to at ease. He asked them how the repairs had been going, he wasn't aware that any of the vents in this area still had to be repaired.

The man explained that this vent wasn't essential, it was an offshoot that was used to keep the few housing units around it at a comfortable temperature. But they just finished repairing essential vents in the neighboring quarter, so they decided to come back and get it back running. The man looked to the people behind the Charr and smiled “Welcome to Zeon, I'm sorry you have to see us right after an attack like this, must not be very impressive...My name is Edmund, I'm a air flow technician, I make sure all the vents are up and running. Oh, you're obviously with the Charr for official business! I am sorry to waste your time, we'll get out of your way.” If any of the delegates here wanted to speak with a n average hard working Zeonite, this would be the time to do it.